2000 Dodge Intrepid from North America - Comments

8th May 2007, 06:58

We just bought a 2000 Dodge Intrepid 3 days ago with 60,000 miles on it. It came from a private seller, not one of those rip-off dealers. The main driver of it was an old guy who babied it everywhere. Driving it around town, it sounds like its running very well, with no signs of any problems. Though, I'm wandering if mine is going to be doomed by the same problem. I hope not, it really is a nice car.

19th Jul 2007, 16:22

I recently got rid of my 1999 2.7 liter Intrepid. The engine with 70K miles virtually destroyed itself in a couple minutes, without warning. Crank, cam, gaskets the works had to be replaced. I got off cheap for $1,800.00 bucks in bills since my neighbor is a mechanic. I feel for all you who've had problems, are having problems or WILL be experiencing problems. My advice is sell the car immediately and don't buy Chrysler products again.

4th Aug 2007, 22:28

I have followed this thread and related comments about the sludge and low-idle/hot-engine situation where oil pressure light activates.

I had this happen once on my 2000 intrepid 2.7 engine, at about 80k. All I did to fix it was change the PCV valve and the oil, of course, with the Castrol anti-sludge formula and a good filter. Haven't had any problems at all since. Car has 120,000k now. Also have back-flushed the rad to help keep the engine cool. Car runs great. I find the 2.7 -- if you maintain and keep a watchful eye -- is a decent little engine for both power and economy. It is very quiet.

15th Feb 2011, 23:15

I feel sorry for all of these people; to begin with, Dodge "recommends" oil changes every 7500 miles, when in fact these engines will not tolerate 3000 mile oil changes.

In order to have these vehicles for a long time with no engine problems, you HAVE to use PURE SYNTHETIC oil. The reason is because conventional oil starts boiling at about 300 degrees, which is very easy to get, due to this engine's design by having both catalytic converters on each side of the motor, that makes the oil boil, and there you have your sludge, produced by cooking the oil.

On the other hand, synthetic oil boils at about 400 degrees, and even with the catalytic converters real close to the side of the engine, it never gets that hot.

Please do not get confused about your coolant temperature and your oil's temperature, because you can have perfect coolant temperature while your engine oil gets way hotter than normal. I know it's kind of complicated to understand, but these DODGE vehicles are the main reason I stopped being an ASE Certified Master Engine Tech to become a used car lot owner. I have bought a lot of these vehicles with bad engines to remanufacture them with NEW and UPGRADED parts, plus I personally tell my customers how to make these engines go for 150 to 200 thousand miles, or maybe even more, and I am doing just fine.

Anyways, my point is that there is a lot misleading info from Dodge, I guess we just have to learn ourselves how to make these engines last longer. I wish I had more time to explain a little better, but I have to go, please contact me if you have any questions, my email address is: alc.25 @ hotmail.com.